I believe this carved fisherman to be real and carved from an animal part be it bone, tooth or some kind of rare organic material. You can see the strata of the material especially the photos of the legs.

This item looks to have had its head broken off at one point but repaired quite nicely. A chip can be seen out of the hat from the top view which I circled. I also circled the area of repair around the neck. Just looking at it on my shelf, one doesn't see that it has been broken. It took some close looking to see that it had been broken.

7" tall.

I'm assuming it was carved in japan or china.